| Very West Coast
Reader Day
It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day for our first reader
day event. Therefore a number of people who had expressed
interest in attending headed instead for the local garden centre or
the hills! Luckily our authors were not tempted away and instead
joined approximately 35 people for a day to discuss literature
and creativity. It was quite simply a very interesting and
stimulating occasion and unlike any other reader events that I have
ever attended, rather than experiencing any formality it was almost like a
gathering of friends in someone's lounge, although the venue was
a little warm on such a gloriously warm afternoon!
We were very fortunate to have a line up
of "brilliant" and "inspirational" speakers who included, Angus
Peter Campbell, Linda Gillard, Roger Hutchinson and Norman
Newton all of whom were very self effacing and made this whole
writing thing seem very easy, thereby inspiring a number of
people to go away and try their hand at writing. We had
some fabulous feedback from those who were there, including lots
of requests to run such a day again. I was told that
people had found the event, "interesting," "fantastic" and "fab,
fab, fabulous".
If you are a keen reader or interested in
writing yourself, I can not think of a better way to spend some
time, even on a glorious day like Saturday the 24th of March
was, than sharing a love of reading and books with other like
minded individuals. Look out for more events in the
Highlands soon.
Angus Peter Campbell was born at a crossroads in 1952.
The T-junction was where South Boisdale (or AnLeth Mheadhanoch,
"Half of the middlequarter") meets the main drag north to south
between Daliburgh and Ludag. He may have first taken breath in
Daliburgh Hospital under the careful eye of Dr Alasdair Maclean,
in which case he had a more literary introduction to humanity
than most of us, but he cannot be sure. He "Emigrated to Oban to
attend secondary school and developed a keen interest in
literature with the encouragement of his English teacher Iain
Crichton Smith
He attended the University of Edinburgh
and later went on to take up a career in journalism. He has
written for the West Highland Free Press and has also worked for
Grampian Television and the BBC and he still broadcasts
regularly.
He took up tenure of Sgriobhaichde at
Sabhal Mor Ostaig in 1990, and published his first collection of
verse in 1992. He lectured at SMO through until 2000, producing
more poetry and Gaelic children's novels. He was awarded the
Bardic crown at the Mod in 2001 and the Iain Crichton Smith
Writing Fellowship in 2003. Angus Peter was hugely influenced by
the place where he was born and by the landscape in which he
grew up. He cites Sorley Maclean as a huge influence and has
recently written his first book in English Invisible Islands
(Otago, 2006)
Angus Peter is a storyteller in the grand
Gaelic tradition and anyone who has heard him speak will surely
agree that he is both entertaining and poetic, truly an
experience not to be missed!
Norman
Newton was born in Glasgow in 1944, spent his teenage years
in New Zealand and went to college and university in the USA,
returning to Scotland in 1971 to work first at Glasgow
University Library and then in public libraries, in Argyll (Campbeltown)
and Inverness. Since 1998 he has had responsibility for
reference and local history collections in the Highland
Libraries network of 40 libraries, stretching from Caithness to
Lochaber and from Nairn and Strathspey to Lochaber, Skye and
Wester Ross.
Norman’s first
books were for the David & Charles Island series, covering Islay
(1988) and Colonsay & Oronsay (1990). Roads to the Isles: an
island-hopper’s guide to the Hebrides, followed in 1991 for
the ill-fated Moffat publisher Lochar. The Shell Guide to the
Islands of Britain followed in 1992, again for David &
Charles.
After
reassessing the format of the much-loved and respected Island
series, David & Charles relaunched their island books in a new
format in 1995, under the Pevensey Press imprint. Norman was
commissioned to write smaller, colour-illustrated island books
on Arran, Islay, Shetland and Skye. In 1999 commissions followed
for books on Bute and Kintyre, and then, as Pevensey Press
branched out to include mainland Scotland, one on the North-West
Highlands.
Expertise
gathered during six years in the Reference Room at Inverness
Library lead to The Life and Times of Inverness (1996),
published by John Donald and then to Inverness: Highland town
to Millennium city (2003), published by Breedon Books. These
books sought to bring the joy of local history to a wider
audience.
In his present
job Norman facilitates liaison between Highland Libraries and Am
Baile, the bilingual website which acts as a digital archive for
the history and culture of the Highlands:
www.ambaile.org.uk .
Norman is
knowledgeable, approachable and very self-effacing. He
made the whole writing thing seem easy, but as anyone who has
tried their hand at it will attest this is not the case. As one
of our keen readers pointed out, many people who buy books in the
shop in which she works comment that his book about Skye is one
of her bestsellers, but all of Norman's books are well
researched and easy to read, I would recommend them to anyone
who is planning a little island hopping in the near future!
Linda
Gillard lives and writes on the Isle of Skye, off the
north-west coast of Scotland. She graduated from Bristol
University and trained as an actress at the Bristol Old Vic
Theatre School. For eight years she pursued an acting career,
the highlight of which was sharing a table in The National
Theatre canteen with Sir Michael Gambon. The lowlight was
playing a fairy for four rainy months in an open-air production
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Regent’s Park.
Whilst under-employed at the National Theatre, Linda
accidentally became a freelance journalist and wrote
light-hearted articles for magazines, many based on her
semi-self-sufficient “Good Life” in rural Cambridgeshire. For
twelve years she had a humorous column in IDEAL HOME about
family life.
Linda ran her two careers
concurrently for a while, then decided to give up acting to
focus on journalism and raising a family. At the age of 40 she
re-trained as a primary teacher and taught in Norfolk
specialising in English and Art. She decided to re-think her
career yet again after she was assaulted by a disturbed pupil.
The re-think entailed giving up teaching and downshifting to the
Isle of Skye, realising a long-held dream to move to the
Highlands and write full-time. Linda now lives on a hillside
overlooking the Cuillins, a mountain range featured in her first
novel,
Emotional Geology (set on the island of
North Uist and shortlisted for the 2006 Waverton Good Read
award) and A Lifetime Burning which
was recently described thusly in Northwords Now
“The emotional power in these
novels makes this reviewer reflect on how Charlotte and Emily
Bronte might have written if they were living and writing now.”
She has
been an actress, journalist and primary teacher but now
writes fulltime. Her third book Falling Water,
Weeping Stone will
hopefully
be published in the
summer and will be set on the Isle of
Skye and in Edinburgh.
Linda is a very entertaining
reader of her own work and was also able to regale her readers
with the perils and delights of being an author in the modern
world
Her website can be accessed here:
http://www.lindagillard.co.uk
Roger
Hutchinson is an award-winning author and journalist. Born
in the north of
England
in 1949, after a time spent editing magazines in London he moved
to Skye in 1977, but he now lives in Raasay, where he is a
prominent and well known individual. He has written a
column for the West Highland Free Press for a number
of years and is a well respected book reviewer himself.
His books
include Camanachd: the story of shinty (1989);
Polly: the true story behind “Whisky Galore” (1990); High
sixties: the summers of riot and love (1992); The crimes
of war: the Antanas Gecas Affair (1994); All the sweets
of being: a life of James Boswell (1995); Empire Games:
the British invention of Twentieth–Century sport; Aleister
Crowley: the beast demystified (1998); Into the light: a
complete history of Sunderland Football Club (1999); The
soapman: Lewis, Harris and Lord Leverhulme (2003); The
Toon: a complete history of Newcastle United Football Club
(2004); The waxing moon: the modern Gaelic revival
(2005); Calum’s Road (2006).
Roger impressed everyone who
attended with his knowledge and love of books. He is also
a wonderful and entertaining raconteur who shared a wealth of
tales with his audience.
A Photograph Album of the
day is available here
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